Five classic Derby County v Nottingham Forest bust-ups

Danny Collins and Derby’s Chris Martin in an aerial duel during Forest’s 1-0 win in August (Photo: PA Wire)

The clubs made famous by Brian Clough lock horns in a Saturday lunchtime fixture with added spice given both Derby County and Nottingham Forest are hoping to win a place in the Premier League at the end of the season.

They may be separated by Brian Clough Way and their histories may be intertwined, but bitterness and pettiness are the main recurring theme in recent fixtures between the two great East Midlands rivals.

And, with Forest’s former Rams manager Billy Davies able to be on the sideline after his appeal against a touchline ban was postponed for ‘personal reasons’, the potential for more feisty activity is only enhanced. Here are five of the best confrontations from the past:

Brian Clough v Peter Taylor: Derby 2 Forest 0 (FA Cup, January 1983)

Clough’s trusted assistant quit Forest in the summer of 1982, citing burnout, only to reappear at their old stomping ground the Baseball Ground in the November. The FA Cup third round brought them a quick reunion and at the time, it had widely been believed the Forest split had been on good terms. However ex-Red Archie Gemmill sealed Derby’s shock 2-0 win with a brilliant free kick and Forest’s players said they had never seen Clough angrier than he was after that match. A few months months later, there was no more pretence as Clough was quoted saying he would run Taylor over if he saw him on the A52 after he had signed Forest’s star player John Robertson.

Stuart Pearce scored a magnificent winning goal in Forest’s 2-1 win but what happened in this match highlights the different rules football operated under in the 1980s. A feature of Forest/Derby matches around this time was the rough stuff handed out to Rams winger Ted McMinn. Nowadays a player wouldn’t hang around to wait for the red card for the worst of the x-rated tackles Pearce committed on the ‘Tin Man’ – a wild knee-high lunge, with Derby leading 1-0 in the first half. That night, referee Joe Worrall pulled out a yellow and left-winger Brian Rice famously carried on the assaults to force a battered and bruised McMinn into an early exit.

The game was level at 1-1 with Forest’s Lewis McGugan having been very harshly sent off as the game entered stoppage time. Then Miles Addison headed in what would have been the winner only for 25-year-old referee Stuart Attwell to spot an earlier handball by Luke Chambers. Ex-Ram Lee Camp was Forest’s hero with a brilliant double save from the penalty, but the drama didn’t end there. The resulting corner was headed emphatically into the net by Addison only for Attwell to spot an infringement no one else saw. Derby boss Paul Jewell insisted he had never felt so aggrieved but the reaction of Forest manager Colin Calderwood was rather more telling. ‘He adjudged the game really well. No complaints,’ said Calderwood before adding with a broad smirk: ‘It was an obvious push.’

When Robbie Savage was claiming the moral high ground, calling it a ‘disgrace’, you knew Nathan Tyson had done something wrong. Forest broke Derby’s long dominance in the fixture only for it to be immediately overshadowed. Tyson ripped a corner flag, emblazoned in the Forest crest, out of a club’s official hands before parading it in front of the 4,000 visiting Derby fans. Players and officials from both clubs quickly waded in with the general consensus that Tyson could have caused a riot. Derby, of course, were so appalled by what had taken place that they signed Tyson two years later.

For the second consecutive time, both clubs were fined for failing to control their players but it is what happened between the managers that has become the stuff of legend. The melee took place near the dug-outs and Billy Davies accused Nigel Clough of deliberately kneeing him in the back of the leg. Davies refused to shake Clough’s hand claiming ‘he knows as much as I know that it was no accident’ and said he would take legal advice. Thankfully no one followed through Davies’ suggestion that both men should sit on an electric chair to determine the truth.